Dad’s Closing Words
As you can imagine, Dad has been on my mind frequently in the last six weeks. Sometimes, it is at the strangest times or in the most unusual ways that he jumps into memory. Last Friday – every February 14th – carried a daily Bible reading schedule of Psalm 19. The last verse, verse 14, reads: “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, My Rock and my Redeemer.”
For most of my life, I can remember Dad closing his prayers with this verse. You do not often hear prayers today quoting Scripture. First century Christians did (Acts 4:24-26). We don’t need to remind God that He said something but what does it show about our hearts and our speech when they are laced with quotations from God’s word?
When I translate this verse literally from Hebrew, David says, “May they be for pleasure, words of my mouth and mediation of my heart, before You, Jehovah, my Rock and My Redeemer.” The word “meditate” means “to think deeply or carefully about (something).”
David (and Dad) were offering both their words and the meditation of their heart (conceived as a single thought) as an offering, a sacrifice to the Lord of heaven. Sacrifices are in the background of this imagery – “Let the words and meditation be acceptable in your sight.” This shows that all words and each meditation is not acceptable. There is a standard which God expects out of us.
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With a sacrifice in mind, David also gives the reason or the motivation for the sacrifice. God is the Rock and the Redeemer. Rock denotes stability. It denotes the foundation, a strong foundation, for faith. Redeemer brings to mind a Savior, which implicitly shows David recognized his sin and the fact that he needed a Savior. As did Dad…
We frequently had devotionals when I was growing up. One day, and it seems Dad was busy and had come home just in time for the devotional but my memory is foggy on the other details, but when he led prayer, all he said was “God, be merciful to me a sinner.” I was in my early teens or younger when this happened. Can you imagine the impact that prayer had, coming from the lips of Dad, on a young teenage boy? I never knew why he felt compelled to say such a prayer.
But if you combine that with his oft quotation of Psalm 19:14, you may see that he was offering himself as a sacrifice on the altar of his faith to God.
Can you and I, today, offer our words as a sacrifice to God? How about the mediation in our heart? Maybe we should both pray and live the words of Psalm 19:14.
–Paul Holland
